Before your organization can move forward with an effective data privacy program, it’s essential to gain a firm understanding of your data: what you have, how you get it, where it comes from, where it’s located, and where it goes internally and externally. For many businesses, the simplest and most effective way to achieve this appears to be a survey: it’s quick, it’s simple, it requires no scheduling, and the results fit easily into a spreadsheet. But as Primitive Logic explored in our latest webinar, The No-BS Guide to Data Privacy in 2019 … and Beyond, while surveys can be helpful, they don’t provide the comprehensive picture your compliance efforts need. (Can’t see the embedded replay above? Click here to view it on our BrightTALK channel.)
Recently I was discussing our data privacy service with someone from a gaming company. When he asked why Primitive Logic doesn’t do surveys, I said, “Before I answer that, let me ask you a question. Does your company collect personal information?”
He replied, “No.”
If our conversation had been a survey, that would have been the end of it. But I probed a bit further:
“Do users play your game online?”
“Some of them, yes.”
“Do they play with friends?”
“Yes.”
“That information — the friends they play with — where do you store it?”
That was when the light bulb switched on and he admitted, “You’re right — we do collect personal data.”
His “no” turned into a “yes” … but only when I asked the right questions.
So, while surveys can be helpful, they don’t tell the whole story. Likewise, IT system documents and data discovery tools can provide valuable information. But to get to the truth, you have to sit down and talk to people. You have to interview them, listen closely to their responses, and keep asking questions until you get the insights you need.
When Primitive Logic conducts interviews for our clients’ data privacy projects, we don’t ask technical questions about the systems the team uses or the data they handle, which can be awkward for some less-technical team members. We ask them about what they do on a day-to-day basis. Most people are comfortable with that conversation, and their answers help us start building a picture of the different systems the client uses and the data they have.
To learn more about our step-by-step guide to data privacy, view the webinar replay above or watch it on our BrightTALK channel.
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